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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think it is easy to keep your home clean?

400 replies

Ohwell14 · 27/10/2017 20:05

Providing you are able bodied obviously

OP posts:
Ellie56 · 27/10/2017 23:15

'Ooh, you know what I'd like on my headstone - 'She kept a lovely house' '

Bollocks to that. Grin Grin

rainbowduck · 27/10/2017 23:20

No. I feel like I am pissing in the wind daily, and it's a bit soul destroying.

Fantasticmissfoxy · 27/10/2017 23:20

Goady goady goaderson!! Depends on what else you have going on and how big your house is obvs.

Maryann1975 · 27/10/2017 23:26

Dh and I both work full time, he does shifts, I’m a childminder. The house has been a state all week as it’s half term. I went to bed early last night as I couldn’t bear to look at the —mess— game the children had asked me to leave set up for this morning. When everyone left, I spent two hours tidying and cleaning. At 7.30 it was lovely and tidy, all mess gone, washing all put away. Guess what, it’s a bloody mess again, as we’ve had tea and I’m too knackered to argue with my kids about moving dishes from the side to dishwasher, move trays etc. Several toys have made their way downstairs again. As the first poster commented, it’s like pissing into the wind.

roundaboutthetown · 27/10/2017 23:27

It really depends what you mean by "clean" - especially as you strangely subsequently referred to tidy, which imo is a different thing. Clean, so far as I'm concerned, just means clean enough not to be an infection risk, so bathroom and kitchen kept clean and any spilt food or drink cleared up straight away. Dusty shelves and clutter don't kill anybody (unless they fall on top of you...).

Shadow666 · 27/10/2017 23:32

I think if I kept my kids in the shed, it would be a lot easier to keep a clean house.

BulletFox · 27/10/2017 23:34

Life's too short to descale the kettle

Maryann1975 · 27/10/2017 23:39

I’ve babywipwd the windowsill tonight, (which has needed doing all week) but have never descaled the kettle. Is this something i should be doing?

PurpleDaisies · 27/10/2017 23:41

maryann if you’re not in a hardwater area there’s no need. Where I am the limescale is a bloody nuisance and the bathroom needs cleaning every five minutes. If your kettle’s heating element is covered in scale it reduces the efficiency of the heat transfer so it takes more energy in to boil the water.

DancingOnParsnips · 27/10/2017 23:47

Weird.

Coloursthatweremyjoy · 28/10/2017 08:29

Where I lived before I literally did not descale the kettle for almost 20 years. In this house, 5 months in, my tea is full of little white bits and I'm descaling away.

It depends how hard the water is in your area.

Notreallyarsed · 28/10/2017 08:34

When it was just DS1 and DP and me, the house was immaculate all the time. Now there’s DD and DS2 and I underestimated just how messy 2 toddlers can be! So our house is clean enough (ie kitchen and bathroom done daily, rest of the house when I can) but very rarely actually tidy.

GerdaLovesLili · 28/10/2017 08:39

Dust if you must...
But if there's one thing my mother taught me it's that she had an immaculate home because she cared more about being judged by the neighbours than she did about her family being comfortable or loved.

So I spend my time doing things that count.

Grimbles · 28/10/2017 08:53

There is no need to do any housework at all. After the first four years the dirt doesn't get any worse.

Lipstickonteeth · 28/10/2017 08:59

Possible if you want to spend all your spare time cleaning & tidying but not bloody easy!

I work 4 days, have 2 incredibly lazy and messy teens (prob my fault but I can't stand the arguments), 2 equally messy, lazy cats and can't afford a cleaner. 4 bed/2 bath house. Pissing in the wind is a very good description.

I really dislike living in a dirty, messy house, DH even less so ( he grew up in an immaculate house with a mother who never sat still, worked full time and lived on her nerves). Pre kids our house was also immaculate.

We try our best to keep on top of it. I clean the kitchen, bathrooms & dust throughout weekly and DH hoovers. This means a fair chunk of my weekend is spent cleaning - would rather not but I couldn't stand knowing it's not clean. Every day is a constant round of clearing up after the messy teens, tidying the kitchen after meals etc. I do the minimum in the kids rooms - it's mainly removing dirty plates/clothes as dusting is a challenge.

DH still describes our house as a tip. It really isn't but is far from immaculate, although probably is compared to most of my friends! However, they seem to make time to do more interesting things and seem able to overlook the mess whereas we just can't. Sigh Sad

Lucyyati · 28/10/2017 09:00

It's a constant battle I never win

LaurieMarlow · 28/10/2017 09:06

Do you ever see competitive cleaning threads on Reddit for example?

Don't think so.

Only women worry about this shit. Screw that. Life's too short.

Bluntness100 · 28/10/2017 09:12

Only women worry about this shit

I don’t think that’s true. Most men I know don’t like living in a shit tip either. Whether they do anything about it is a different story, as it is with some women, but it’s certainly not gender specific to not wish to live in a dirty house.

LaurieMarlow · 28/10/2017 09:17

Judging others on the basis of it seems particularly female.

Bluntness100 · 28/10/2017 09:22

Judging others on the basis of it seems particularly female

Not at all. We had builders round doing some work and the conversation got round to this as they were talking about some of the houses they visit and the total filthy shit holes that some people,live in. Men totally judge.

LaurieMarlow · 28/10/2017 09:42

We'll have to agree to disagree on that because I've literally never heard a man comment on it in my life.

MissDuke · 28/10/2017 09:54

My house is usually pretty tidy (by my standards) but not spotless. I never clean the entire house in one go so there is always somewhere that is dirty. Whether it be the back of a cupboard in the kitchen, a dusty bookshelf in a bedroom or a dirty shower tray (I find these really hard to keep clean!).

Doesn't bother me in the slightest. Sometimes it gets pretty bad and I feel overwhelmed and don't really know where to start but I usually get on top of it in the end.

I work long shifts in a very busy job and am wrecked on my days off. I have three children one of which has a disability. My husband is great though. I guess frequent deep cleans just isn't a priority for us.

Fekko · 28/10/2017 09:56

Mum either full time looking after the house. She had a cheater 3 times a week too. It was perfect at all times and we were a large family.

formerbabe · 28/10/2017 10:06

It's easy to clean stuff, the hard part is keeping it clean.

Dh and dc were at school/work so I cleaned the bathroom. It was sparkling. Within a couple of hours of everyone being home, the sink was disgusting. Kids had brushed their teeth and managed to spit toothpaste over the taps Confused. Dh had had a shave and his futile attempt to clean it meant there was hair all over it. I thought what was the point of me cleaning it earlier. A complete waste of time.

PurpleDaisies · 28/10/2017 10:11

former get your husband to go and clean it properly. He shouldn’t get to leave it a mess just after it’s been cleaned because he’s a man.